Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hey guys, i have a situation! i have had 6 cherry red shrimp for about 6 months now, they are full grown at 1 inch and a bright red color. I recently bought about 20+ more young juv cherry red (from a reliable breeder). And put both the old and new shrimps all into an empty tank.

I just noticed ALL the young cherry red would gang up and literally attack the old cherry red (that's 2-3 times their size!). The poor old shrimp would back away everytime he sees other young ones, but they would still charge him and try to eat him while he struggles upside down cured up. I had to break up the fight at least 5 times so far using a chopstick. I feed my shrimps algae wafers every 2 days, so by no means are the shrimps starving.

what's going on!??! why are they trying to kill the older shrimp?! i thought cherry reds are all very peaceful! I dont want the old shrimp to get killed, he's been with my tank(in the process of rescaping) for 6 months!

ps i dont think the old shrimp is dying or sick, he looked normal by himself. it's only when other shrimps jump on top of him try to eat him that he got turned upside downa nnd curls up the tail.

They are mating. He's a she. At least that is what I suspect.

ah, so those young juv shrimps 3 times smaller is trying to mate with the old shrimp? hmm hmm hmmmmmmm

Wow....those are some kinky shrimps.

Is "he" red or mostly clear? Got a pic? We can determine for sure with a good photo. I'm better "he" will have a batch of eggs on "his" swimmerlets in a day or so.

it's not bright red like in some pics, but a full dark brown red color that covers the entire body. Currently i have he/she in a cup by itself to prevent others from killing it.

Think i should put it back with the general population?

sorry no pics, tried to take a few and they all looked really bad

Sounds like a female to me, if you check under the 'shrimp varieties' page you can see pictures of male and female cherry shrimp, they are quite different:-

http://www.petshrimp.com/redcherryshrimp.html

I would put her back in the tank - keeping her in a cup is not a very good idea, even if your intentions were good.

I guess should be mating.